WAIKOLOA, Hawai'i - The University of Colorado men's golf team arrived here Saturday in preparation for its spring opener, the 23rd annual Amer Ari Hawaii-Hilo Invitational.

The tournament, which runs this Wednesday through Friday, will provide an early indication of where the Buffaloes stand right out of the gate, not just nationally, but with seven other Pac-12 schools competing, the Buffs will get an early idea of where they stand in the conference.

The field here is annually one of the strongest in the spring, and it's no exception this year with four top 10 teams competing, 11 of the top 50 and all but one (out of 18) in the top 100. It also includes seven of the nation's top individuals and two of the top 28 Division II programs.

Colorado (No. 66 in the final Golfweek fall rankings), will be joined in the field by league counterparts Washington (No. 6), UCLA (No. 7), Southern California (No. 8), Stanford (No. 15), Oregon State (No. 54), Oregon (No. 62) and Arizona State (No. 72). Other top schools competing include No. 2 Texas, No. 10 Georgia Tech, No. 14 Oklahoma State and No. 23 Auburn.

The three-day tournament is a real treat for the participants, as the tournament will be played on the renowned 7,074-yard, par-72 Waikoloa King's Course on Hawai'i's Big Island, with fairways interspersed between ancient lava fields. The teams will play 18 holes each day in weather expected to be near-perfect with temperatures in the upper 70s.

Colorado head coach Roy Edwards said the team is looking forward to the spring season getting underway.

"It's always a great field, and it should be really exciting; the guys are ready to compete," Edwards said. "We're not looking at it as an opportunity to go practice, if we handle our business, our expectations going in is to travel over there and beat some really good teams."

Six Buffaloes will make the trip; five will score for the team: seniors Jason Burstyn (71.7 fall stroke average), Derek Fribbs (72.6) and Beau Schoolcraft (73.9), sophomore David Oraee (72.8) and freshman Philip Juel-Berg (73.5). All five played in all six fall competitions. Redshirt freshman Drew Trujillo (76.7) will play as an individual.

"The guys have very high expectations, and the first few weeks of practice have been very good," Edwards continued. "Our goals are always the same, be successful as you can in each tournament, play well enough to be invited to the postseason and advance once we get there. The talent and the work ethic of our team is at high level, and I think the expectations are justified.

"But as always, ultimately we have to pay attention to what we can take care of ourselves on a daily basis, if not a shot-by-shot basis, to reach those goals."